Dec 12, Hydroponics System

Hydroponics System

Hydroponics gardening is an innovation of cultivating plants soil-less. Its applications can be traced back to ancient times in China and Babylon. And it was not until many decades earlier when scientists allotted due attention to it.

Today, hydroponic gardening uses different systems which can be differentiated by being passive and active.

In passive hydroponics system, the nutrients essential for plant growth are delivered using a growing medium. The plant?s growth rate is slow because many of the nutrients are accumulated in the growing medium and cannot be absorbed entirely by the plant roots.

The active hydroponic system is opposite. To deliver the nutrients, a pump is required, thereby, ensuring that the plants absorbed the nutrients very well. As a consequence, the plants grow rapidly and healthily.

The hydroponic system is further classified between recovery and non-recovery. A recovery system is that which its nutrients are recyclable.

The nutrients in non-recovery are not. Thus far, the hydroponics systems are wick, ebb and flow, nutrient film technique, deep water culture, and aeroponics.

The simplest type is the wick system. It does not have moving components. Its mechanisms are similar to an oil lamp or tike torch, whereby, the liquid is dry up by wicking it up.

Many enthusiasts use different materials and different ways in making a wick system, its principle remains the same. A wick system is passive and non-recovery type.

Ebb and flow system requires a submersible water pump such as those of a fountain pump and household light timer to run the cycles.

It has a reservoir where the nutrient solution is stored and which is placed below the plants. The timer works together with the water pump. It sets schedules in releasing the nutrient solution. It is active and recovery type.

Nutrient film technique ? another recovery and active type of hydroponics system is the nutrient film technique in which, the plant roots are suspended in a grow tube.

The grow tubes are positioned in a certain angle so that the nutrient solution is recycled as they go through the roots and back to the reservoir. It uses air stones to supply the needed oxygen requirement.

Deep water culture ? it is also a simple system after the wick. In this system, the plant roots are suspended directly into the nutrient solution.

It uses a growing medium like a Styrofoam rafts so plants can be placed onto and hence floats on the water. Air stones too are used in the nutrient reservoir.

Aeroponics The plants in aeroponics system are suspended on top of a reservoir. It uses the same principles in water-based hydroponics and air vapors which are created from nutrient solution and sprayed in the reservoir to engulf the dangling plant roots.

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Dec 9, Hydroponics Equipment

Hydroponics equipment is required to start a hydroponic garden. Unlike the traditional approach to gardening, the hydroponics which in Greek terminology means water for hydro and labor for ponic, does not use soil for planting.

The plants thrive by supplying the essential nutrients through a solution channeled through a medium.

Depending on the type of system used in hydroponics, not all equipment is necessary. Also, some equipment varies.

However, in most cases, hydroponics equipment includes the growing tray, plant pots, growing medium, support, reservoir, drains, water pump, timer, plastic tubing, and grow lights.

Growing Tray

Hydroponic trays are platforms where plants are the garden in built. They are available in different sizes and colors.

Plant Pots

Also known as containers, the pots make it easy to hold plants. The choices are wide in terms of shapes, color, size, and materials. Among others, there plant pots made of net baskets, smart pots, and grow bags. There are also those with mesh-bottom.

Growing Medium

Growing mediums or grow rocks are normally used in most hydroponics gardening, except in the ebb and flow system. Some of the growing medium, where plants are grown include the oasis cubes, coconut fiber, perlite, vermiculite, expanded clay pellets, air, rockwool, gravel, water, lava rock, saw dust, fiberglass insulation, sand, and sphagnum moss.

Support

The support system refers to the support given to the tray. It is suspended above the reservoir. The setup of hydroponics decides which support is ideal like a milk tray or customized support. In deciding the support system, it is best to consider the weight of the water and nutrients as well as the plants especially when they mature in time.

Reservoir

A reservoir is any large plastic container where the nutrient solution is stored.

Drains

In hydroponics gardening, two drains are needed?one for draining the water nutrient back into the reservoir, and another for overflowing into the growing tray. Generally, growing pipes are made of plastic to avoid rusting. They also come in varied sizes to fit the requirements of hydroponic gardening.

Water Pump

The water pump, as part of hydroponics equipment should be considered wisely. The size should be able to deliver the hydroponic system requirements. To know the appropriate size, a consideration of amount of water and distance is vital.

Timers

Depending on the needs of the grower, timers can have a single time schedule or several. For advanced level of hydroponics gardening, larger and sophisticated times are suitable as it can deliver the needed frequency.

Plastic Tubing

To prevent algae build-up, the tubing must be transparent. This enables the grower to monitor activities in hydroponics and existence of other organism.

Grow Lights

In order to synthesize foods, grow lights are the best alternative to sunlight as hydroponic gardening is generally an indoor garden system. The variety of grow lights available is to ensure efficiency in crop harvest.

Hydroponics gardening seems to be the ultimate choice in farming crops. It benefits the environment and enables the grower to have higher amount of harvested crops.

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Dec 17, Homegrown Hydroponics

Homegrown Hydroponics

In hydroponics, cultivation of plants is done by flooding their roots with nutrient solution for quite awhile without the necessity of soil.

The plants are either placed on a growing medium such as vermiculite or perlite or whichever setup that can hold them in place and moistened regularly.

Hydroponics is an ancient school with Babylonians and Chinese as among the cultivators. However, it was not until a decade earlier when homegrown hydroponics is conveniently included among the specializations of gardeners and hobbyists.

Today, hydroponics can be done at home by anybody.

To get started, one should obtain the basic hydroponics equipment. Hydroponics supplies are container, light, pump, reservoir, growing medium, reticulation, and nutrient solution.

A container is where the plants are held. It must have draining mechanism.

Light is important as it supports photosynthesis. As homegrown hydroponics is done indoors, lights must be sufficient enough to encourage photosynthesis.

The pump is the engine of hydroponics. Its function is to pump nutrient solution through the reticulation pipes from the reservoir into the container.

A reservoir holds the runoff of nutrient solution from container grow-beds.

In hydroponics, there are systems which necessitate the use of growing medium. It is useful in holding seedlings in their rightful place. A few other growing mediums are expended clay pellets, gravel, and coconut fiber.

The pipes through which the nutrient solution shall pass and drain through compose the reticulation system.

There are water-produced nutrients, mineral nutrients, and minor mineral nutrients that are helpful to plants. Most nutrients are readily available commercially with different formulations.

Included in the water-produced nutrients are carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. On the other hand, the primary mineral nutrients are nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, sulphur, calcium, and magnesium.

Belonging to the minor mineral nutrient group are manganese, boron, sodium, chloride, copper, iron, zinc, molybdenum, and nickel.

Two of beneficial nutrients are silicon and cobalt.

The plants that can be cultivated in hydroponics are nearly all that can be planted on traditional gardening or farming.

Fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowering plants are raised hydroponically. These seedlings may be taken from anyone?s garden.

Nevertheless, if such is the case, ensure that the soil is thoroughly removed. Hydroponics stores also offer ready to plant seedlings exclusive to hydroponics.

Many see the potential of homegrown hydroponics. Some would say that the global hunger can be cured by hydroponics. Scientists are currently developing on this subject through various experimentation.

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Dec 11, Hydroponics Lighting

To achieve the best lighting results, hydroponics lighting sometimes uses a combination of 2 or more varieties. If for some reasons, natural sunlight is utilized in hydroponic gardening, the grow lights are still used to supplement the natural light.

However, if the source of illumination is solely grow lights, the system must be installed properly.

In setting up the hydroponic lighting system, the farmer or cultivator should be knowledgeable about the color temperature of lights. The color spectrum of the bulb is indicative of its temperature.

The warmest hue is red to orange light with 2000 Kelvin degrees and the coolest hue is blue with 6000 Kelvin degrees.

Between these two colors, the blue light is considered to be the closest to resemble the normal sunlight and which is the best for full-vegetation plants. The warmer color temperature is best for fruit or flowering plants.

During the flowering or reproduction phase, the plants draw light from the red-orange spectrum. To attain the most favorable lighting installation, the lighting should cover the range between red-orange and blue.

There are many types of grow lights used to mirror or supplement the sunlight. The most common type is the Metal Halide bulb, a High-Intensity Discharge or HID grow lights that leans toward the blue hue of the spectrum, resembling direct sunlight.

It is also the most preferred lighting for all growing situations and the best for leafy and full-vegetation cultivation.

More powerful than fluorescent, the Halide lights are ideal for larger or mature plants. Its light is no unpleasant to the human eyes, thus, they are common whenever there are plant exhibits.

However, the Halide lights are not ideal for flowering or fruit production stage of edible or ornamental plants.

Sodium lights, with warm orange color are popular for flowering or fruit production phase of plants. The high pressure sodium bulb is also HID with 2200K color temperature.

Nevertheless, sodium lights are not efficient as an artificial lighting hence too they should be used in combination with natural sunlight or other grow lights.

The fluorescent lighting is the third alternative. They are less expensive and emit less heat. Therefore, they can be positioned closer to the plants.

Other choices of hydroponics lightings are incandescent lights and LED lights.

No matter the choice for hydroponics lighting, the significant consideration is the impact it has on the plants. Also, the environmental conditions could somehow impact and influence the effect of lighting systems.

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